Tekken: Bloodline review: The anime adaptation fails the Tekken franchise again

first signs of anime Tekken: Bloodline What probably doesn’t break the long chain of failed adaptations of the popular fighting game series is the fact that it’s almost impossible to enjoy at normal speed. 6-episode mini-series, Stream on Netflixthe characters move so slow and in such a cumbersome way that the show only looks “right” at 1.25x playback speed, and some fights need to be bumped up to 1.5x. It wasn’t done on purpose to make the show more interactive, like the video games that spawned .

Having said that, pedigree actually do Try to recreate many familiar elements of Tekken Anime style game. They are not suitable elements.Among all the big fighting games out there, Tekken games It was always the slowest.Core gameplay of Tekken The individual limbs of the character are controlled by different buttons, so one button is for punching with the right hand, another button is for kicking with the left foot, and so on. This forces players to master the process of piecing together simple moves to maximize each individual character’s potential and unique fighting style, rather than just mashing buttons.so tekken It takes a lot of skill, but the match can seem slow and simple. In a video game where the spectator controls the action, that’s all fine.watching passively Slow-moving characters in an animated series aren’t very rewarding.

Slow animation may not be a problem. pedigree An attractive character appears.The anime is loosely based on the plot of tekken 3It involves young fighter Jin Kazama being trained by his grandfather, Heihachi Mishima, to win a fighting tournament to lure the Immortal Green Battle God.

Of the three characters, only one has a real personality. God is effectively the Aztec Hulk, but he’s not that interesting to watch, but Heihachi is. Despite what it may look like, the show faithfully portrays Heihachi as both a fighter and a CEO of a big business. Watch him apply the “no mercy” rule of fighting in a business environment.Unfortunately, all the other, objectively more interesting Tekken Characters like white-haired Black Wing Chun prodigy Leroy Smith and purple bikini catsuit-wearing ninja assassin Nina Williams are just cameos and don’t really delve into the backstory.

One of the biggest draws of Tekken games is their roster of interesting outsider left-wing characters. Maybe Alex the genetically engineered dinosaur in his blue boxing gloves wouldn’t work there. pedigreethe story of But there was no reason to introduce American judoka/MMA fighter Paul Phoenix and then do absolutely nothing with him afterward. , don’t talk about a fight with a bear (Kuma, a real Tekken character who is actually a martial arts bear) happened off-screen. How absolutely dare you?

Reducing that fight to a non-visual anecdote not only robbed the show of scenes that could have been anime free ads for years to come, it also feels like a waste of dark tones. . pedigree Setup.While the Tekken franchise There’s a share of goofy-looking characters, and underneath the silly costumes and designs, there’s often a dark, gory drama. can be dramatic if treated like anything. ghostAnd that sort of juxtaposition of insane visuals and somewhat realistic combat is actually one of Tekken’s popular secrets. Stupid on the outside, serious on the inside.

another iron fist What the game has going for them are the characters’ different fighting styles. They aren’t even in the anime.of pedigree, Characters like Heihachi like to talk about how unique tournament fighters are, but when it comes to that, Leroy’s Wing Chun, Ling Xiaoyu’s martial arts, and Jin’s karate are all the same on screen. It looks like. Why? And while we’re at it, why is the character’s most powerful move represented as an original Dragon Ball-esque energy blast? Iron fist Do you always prefer semi-realistic combat over magical moves? pedigreeis the battle scene of the movie that short? (Fan complaint: They also skip the Tekken stuff Fans of Tekken games may be wondering, “Why?”a lot while watching Pedigree.

Image: Netflix

Problems with Tekken adaptations extend beyond the latest anime series. Tekken: Bloodline It’s like a spiritual successor to the 1998 anime Tekken: The Motion Picturein the worst possible way. Tekken: TMP loosely based on Iron fist When tekken 2, and limits the cast to just a handful of characters: Jun Kazama and Kazuya Mishima (Jin’s parents), as well as Heihachi. Every other cool character in the franchise has been relegated to the background and heavily toned down. pedigreeAnd while the movie’s fight scenes move much faster, Pedigree-The style sparks and electric bursts that come out of your fist when you hit someone are far too short to show off the difference in individual fighting styles.

What annoys me the most Tekken: The Motion Picturebut the thing is that writers Ryota Yamaguchi and Seiichi Ishii clearly understood that the game was a mix of silly and serious drama, but pushed it all back. The game is silly on the outside and dark on the inside.In the anime, on the contrary, when Jun and Kazuya talk about traumatic events from their childhood, like when a woman wears a cocktail dress and walks with a bazooka. largely Rather than not being able to understand it from the beginning, I feel frustrated.

Iron fist Animation should look like a certain scene from a 2011 CGI movie Tekken: Blood RevengeIn that movie, a robotic assassin dressed like a pastel-colored clown stripper, complete with wings and chainsaw hands, stops to see her and another experimental character with a body that defies nature. She wonders how it makes them.That particular blend of absurdity and tragedy is just like Tekken It should look like on screen.Unfortunately that’s probably the only thing in the game blood revenge I got it right.

Clearly in Tekken tradition adaptation, blood revenge It doesn’t take advantage of the original game’s impressive stable of characters. Instead, it focuses almost entirely on Ling Xiaoyu and the robotic assassins, without making their fighting style look unique. It’s such a strange place to fail. Not only did the filmmaker have to come up with two different combat formats, one of which he chainsaw for his robot. There were a lot of fun style possibilities there.of mandalorian, when the IG-11 droid stands in one position and rotates parts of its body to shoot everyone around it, there is a beautiful and creative robotic precision to its movements. A well-thought-out rarity blood revenge.

Image: Netflix

Dwight H. Little’s 2010 live-action Tekken movie gets that one right.In the Movies—Current Tekken Game Director Katsuhiro Harada Says It’s Terrible Tweet after deletion — All different fighting styles look real WrongCapoeira is different from kung fu, different from boxing, and so on. Everything else about this movie isn’t Tekken, though. It’s too serious about its premise, leaving out a memorable character backstory and undermining Heihachi (played by Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) by seriously demeaning his deadly nature.

So what would the perfect Tekken adaptation look like? It feels silly on the surface given the vast roster of colorful characters, but there’s drama in their fights and interactions. and heart can be found. It will be based on real martial arts. Avatar: The Last Airbender and its sequel series The Legend of Korra Like both of these shows, it can be fantastic and explosive at times for good spectacle. It means you have to go. A game by showing how much effort you can put into the simplest martial arts moves.

Unfortunately, it’s basically Netflix’s cobra kai, A series with its own lineage, backstory, and fandom. Tekken fans will have to wait and see for an adaptation that takes the game’s strengths seriously.

Tekken: Bloodline Currently streaming on Netflix.